This book is about the life and sayings of Ramakrishna Parmahansa though it contains pieces on Dayananda Saraswati, Pawari Baba, Debendranath Tagore and Keshub Chandra Sen. It also sketches the Vedanta philosophy. About 395 sayings of Ramakrishna have been recorded here.

Ramakrishna believed there were as many ways to God as there were ideologies. He preached detached dutifulness. He believed that the only goal of human life is realization of God. He encouraged his followers to serve God through service of their fellow human beings less fortunate than themselves. His famous disciple, Swami Vivekananda, founded an entire order of socially active monks, the Ramakrishna Mission, in his name.